Theridion: Oversensitivity-to-noise

de Rob Peters

Case:
Woman born in1957. Main complaint now oversensitivity to noises which have bothered her for 17 years.

History:
I saw her for the first time in 1989 with Proctitis from which she had suffered with for 10 years and for which she used salazopyrine and prednisone. At that time I treated her successfully with Natrum muriaticum MK (the reason for the remedy I have left out in the context of this case). Two years later her oversensitivity to noise became more prominent, but we did not give much attention to it at that time.
In her parents history are Rheumatoid arthritis and Tuberculosis.

After 12 years, in 2002, she came back again and told me that she was very depressed, easily irritated and angry, sometimes even almost in panic. “I am getting mad; I am not in control, mad from the noise of cars. It is an obsession. There is heat in my head from traffic sounds” (She lives in a small village in the countryside, a quiet environment, I would say).
She is angry with people, “I want to change them, to teach them how to behave.”

“I feel the noise coming into my territory, it invades my house. I wished that I had lived 50 years earlier.”

I gave Natrum muriaticum MK again, without much result, later followed by Ammonium muriaticum MK, because of a long-standing resentment towards her mother.

In July 2002 she told me that she moved with her husband to another house and everything was better except her joints and her back. (She thought the house was the cause of her problem.) The diagnosis of M. Bechterew was concluded by a Rheumatologist.

After a dose of Tuberculinum MK, her joints were much better and she told me that she was much better after her move to the new house.

At the end of 2002 she is quite well and has only slight problems with her joints, which responded well on Bambusa MK (I read about the remedy in connection with M. Bechterew).
Then I didn’t see her for almost 2 1/2 years.

In the beginning of 2006 she visits my practice again with her complaint of oversensitivity and irritability from noise. She is depressed, for which she sees a psychologist. She is anxious and the noise is almost unbearable.
“The noise of cars, even from far, enters my body like a wave. I am fighting imaginary things. I am in a terrible state. I am going to be mad”.

She is almost suicidal and does not want to take anti-depressives because of earlier bad experiences. “I am impatient, but try to behave normally. I am irritable toward people at my work in the cheese-factory", (where they make fresh sheep-cheese).
She can not find any cause for her complaint and it is strange that noise inside her own home does not bother her. She is angry at the world, wants to fight the world.

Asking her about her childhood, she told me that she was never cuddled, her mother was a hard woman and there was no love at home. She was the oldest and had to do a lot of housework. Complaining was not allowed. “I don’t want to be emotional, sometimes I cry, but I do not feel better afterward.”

Through the therapy with the psychologist she learned not to blame others, but still she feels as if the world is against her.

While talking she makes many influent gestures with her hand. Again she states that noise is like a threat. From any corner there could come a noise, and it makes her very much ‘on edge’. “Outside my home I am not a whole person.” Noise is as a personal attack upon her. Music does not affect her.

Analysis:
The words she used, during this last consultation, made me think of an animal remedy; "territory, intruding my space, my house, inside the house OK, but outside feeling attacked, noise is a threat, penetrating the body.”, etc. (She expressed herself like this before, but I didn’t notice it at the time),
The remedy that has this feeling of sensitivity to noise is a spider: Theridion curassavicum, the orange-spider, which I gave in a MK potency.

Follow-UP
One month later there is a tremendous amelioration. She is much quieter, does not feel stressed, no anger or irritation toward people. The sensitivity to noise is almost gone. "I can submit, I am forgiving, and milder and I don’t feel attacked”.
She had a strong menses that appeared earlier than normal, but gave her no complaints. She looks relaxed and less bitchy.
Interestingly she used the word ‘territory’ in 1989 the first time she came to consult with me, according to my notes.
Three month after the prescription:
She is still doing well. The follow up is not very long, but her reaction compared to earlier prescriptions, was so striking that I dared to present her case.

Theridion is the spider that is the most sensitive to noise and vibration. Noise is ‘penetrating the body’ as the patient experiences it, they can feel it in their teeth.

Literature
Sankaran writes:
Theridion is a remedy of the spider group. It is closely allied to Tarantula, and it too belongs to the tubercular miasm. It shares with other remedies of the spider group a highly sensitive nervous system and prominent features such as hyperactivity, sexuality, colors, music, dancing and high energy.
Also present are fears of being trapped, caught and of being killed. The remedy also manifests hurried and hectic activity, and this fits into my understanding of the tubercular miasm. In fact Tarantula and Theridion often compare with Tuberculinum children because of this intense restlessness. This idea is confirmed by the fact that Phatak in his Materia Medica mentions Theridion as having a tubercular diathesis.
Theridion persons are always very busy, fruitlessly busy. Very prominent in the Theridion woman seems to be the need to find a mate, because she feels that if she doesn't have a mate she will have to face the danger of the outside world, which is too threatening. So there is a need to be attractive and a lot of hectic activity to find, attract and keep her mate. Music, dancing and colors are a part of this attractiveness, whereas fear and impulsive violence are a part of the threat. Besides the need for a partner, a peculiar feature of Theridion is that she seems to completely "dissolve" her identity into that of her partner, thinking and seeing as her partner does, living completely through the eyes and mind of this other person. Hence, in the event of her partner leaving her, she feels a tremendous emptiness and it takes time for her to know her real self again. Theridion has the delusion that her head belongs to another.
In some cases, I have found Theridion persons to have a fear of people, especially when they are alone. When approached by people they feel threatened and want to strike or kill, and they have to control themselves so that they do not.
These features I have seen also in Tarantula and they seem to be common to this group of remedies. I have seen in Theridion an intense aggravation from noise, startles from noise, nausea from noise. There is a strong craving for bananas and oranges. The physical symptom of Theridion that I have verified in practice has to do with its cough: "Cough, violent, jerking of the head forward and the knees upward" and "Cough, jerking the body together".
Rubrics: • Busy, fruitlessly. • Confusion of mind, identity, duality, sense of, head separated from mind, as if. • Delusion, double, of being. • Delusion, head belongs to another. • Delusion, separated from body, is head. • Fear, noise, from. • Loquacity, busy. • Loquacity, excited. • Restlessness, busy. • Sensitive, oversensitive, noise, to, slightest. • Sensitive, oversensitive, shrill sounds, to. • Sensitive, oversensitive, striking of clocks, ringing of bells, to. • Singing. • Starting, noise, from. • Nausea, noise, from.
Theridion is a remedy to think of in babies born with vacuum-extraction with a strong sensitivity to noise.

There is quite a lot of literature on Theridion:
Massimo Mangialavori and Hardy are both authors who are worth reading, as well as the older authors